For the second year running, over the Easter holidays, Oundle School hosted the British English Olympics (BEO), a highly prestigious academic competition run jointly by Oxford International Education Group and BEO World.
Almost 600 competitors and staff from thirty six different schools from as far afield as South America, Mongolia, Turkey, Russia, Portugal and Italy resided in ten of Oundle’s boarding houses. In total 100 schools from around the world, with nearly 1400 students took part in the 8th British English Olympics which was located at six different campuses.
The BEO is a high profile, prestigious academic and cultural event. Participating teams of 12-16 year olds from international schools from around the world travel to the UK to put their English to the test. They compete against one another in a series of academic challenges, alongside having the opportunity to learn about British culture and history as they explore some of the sights. They were required to explore contemporary global issues, make presentations and debate on themes such as the environment, globalisation and sustainable development. This year’s theme was ‘Be Inspired and Inspire’ which required participants to take inspiration from TED talks and develop a project which they later implemented in their local community.
The culmination of six months hard work and two weeks of competitions concluded with a grand closing ceremony held at London ExCel on 9th April.